Chapter One
To sail the seas is to enter into an entirely different world than the one known by landlubbers. It has different rules, different laws and customs, which must be obeyed if the ship is to race into harbor under full sail at the end of her long trick. As such, new systems must be developed, and old ones modified, to accurately represent the various forms of travel on the high seas. Depth and Diving Fathomage in the World of Darkness is represented by the Depth mechanic. Each unit of Depth represents a range of about 10 feet (~3m) below the water's surface; the first ten feet below the surface are Depth 0. Swimmers may dive or ascend up to one Depth level per scene without penalty, but covering more distance than this requires a Stamina roll, the results of which are detailed below. A character who wishes to traverse multiple Depths without penalty must rest at their newly increased/decreased depth for an entire scene before moving on to the next Depth; mechanically, this means that any supernatural powers the character was using must be reactivated and their original activation cost must be paid again. Medically speaking, descending too quickly causes barotrauma and ascending too quickly causes decompression sickness (a.k.a. "the bends), but the two types of damage are mechanically identical for game purposes. Certain supernatural abilities and Merits may negate the need for a Stamina roll while changing one's Depth quickly, at the Storyteller's discretion. Roll Results: * Dramatic Failure: The character takes one point of bashing damage per Depth traversed beyond the first and develops nitrogen narcosis, meaning that they gain one temporary Mental Derangement (such as Amnesia, Compulsion, or Memory Lapse) of the Storyteller's choice. This Derangement lasts until the character's internal pressure normalizes, or s/he is placed in a hyperbaric chamber. * Failure: The character takes one point of bashing damage per Depth traversed beyond the first. * Success: The character takes no damage from ascending/descending this turn. * Exceptional Success: The character gains a burst of energy, granting a +1 bonus on his or her next Depth-related Stamina roll. Characters whose bodies are not primarily made of delicate living tissue — such as vampires, Prometheans, mummies, certain types of Elemental or Mechanical changelings, etc. — can ignore this damage. Pressure Damage Very deep water deals water pressure damage of 1 point of Bashing damage per minute for every 30m the character is below the surface. A successful Resolve + Stamina roll (-1 for each previous check) means that you take no damage in that minute. Any aquatic creature ignores pressure for the first 150m of depth, and only takes 1 point of Bashing damage per 60m below that when determining vulnerability to pressure damage. For example, a dolphin at a depth of 300m is subject to 2 points of Bashing damage per minute, as opposed to the 10 points of Bashing damage per minute that a human faces. Creatures native to deep water are immune to pressure damage; instead, they take damage from a lack of pressure as they rise higher in the water — exactly like near-surface aquatic creatures (i.e. 1 B per 60m, ignore the first 150m), but in the other direction. Diving Equipment hand paddles (+1, but cannot use hands), flippers (+2), monofin (+3), snorkel, hydrobarometer Free Diving Also known as breath-hold diving or skin diving, free-diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of a breathing apparatus. SCUBA Diving A SCUBA diver may go as deep as he can stand as quickly as he likes, as long as his or her body can withstand the pressure... but coming back up is another story. The nitrogen which is present in compressed air can build up in human tissues; a sudden drop in pressure can allow the nitrogen to form bubbles in the blood and other tissues, which can cause insults ranging from dizziness and joint pain to confusion and death. For more info, see Pressure Injuries From Scuba Diving Navigation (based on original material by wyrdhamster) Action: Extended (5–25 successes; each roll represents one day of work, successes per roll are limited to dots in Survival or Science, whichever is being used) Dice Pool: Wits + Survival (without maps and instruments) or Intelligence + Science (with maps and instruments) Possessed by: navigators, sailors, captains, some pirates, deep-sea fishermen Possible Specialties: Dead Reckoning, Starlight, Open Waters, Polynesian Wayfinding Modifiers: familiar waters (+1 to +3), clear skies (+2), cloudy skies (-1 to -2), Equipment: sextant/mariner’s astrolabe (+1), magnetic compass (+2), sea charts (+1 to +3), GPS (+5), sonar (+3) Roll Results * Dramatic Failure: * Failure: * Success: * Exceptional Success: Sailing (based on original material by wyrdhamster) Since the days of the earliest rafts and simplest watercraft, sailing has always required a steady hand and sure knowledge of the sea and her many moods. It also requires an understanding of currents and tides, the movements of the sun and moon and stars, and no small amount of courage. Modern sailors and captains can count on assistance from radar, sonar, and GPS tracking, but the basic goal of sailing remains the same: to find the shortest path to a destination and remain on that path, or adjust to unforeseen deviations from it. Much like terrestrial vehicles, ships have Handling scores. As a rough guideline, a ship's Handling score is usually equal its Durability rating, but this can vary with manufacturer and overall condition of repair. In addition to traveling and surviving on land, the Survival Skill can also be used to sail and navigate ships, boats, and other vessels. Action: Instant. Each roll represents one day of sailing aboard a given vessel; this roll can be a Teamwork Action if multiple characters are contributing. Dice Pool: Depending on the type of propulsion being used, different dice pools will be needed. * Intelligence or Wits + Drive (for motorized watercraft) * Intelligence or Wits + Survival (for sailing vessels) * Strength + Athletics (for rowing/paddling) If a character is attempting to make a long sailing journey alone, or attempting a marathon of sleepless days and nights at the tiller or wheel, t might be appropriate to roll Stamina in place of Intelligence or Wits. Resolution may be used to resist supernatural compulsion while sailing (for example, when sailing into hazards such as clashing rocks or closing canal-locks, or maintaining course while a hypnotic song compels the character to run the vessel aground on nearby rocks). Possessed by: seamen, navigators, recreational sailors, rich people Possible Specialties: Navigation, Rivers & Lakes, Oceans, Storms, Blockade-running Modifiers: Course set by the navigator ( +1 to +5, see "Navigation", below ), Weather (+3 to -3), Low morale (-1 to -3), Equipment: block and tackle (+2), music (+1 to +3), marlinspike (+1), bosun's whistle (+1, usable only on Teamwork Actions), Roll Results * Dramatic Failure: The ship encounters some kind of hazard - such as a storm, an iceberg, dangerous flotsam, a hidden reef, or pirates - which deals AMOUNT points of damage to the vessel’s hull (minus the vessel’s Durability), and may require a Teamwork Action and/or combat to escape and/or repair the damage. * Failure: Your vessel deviates significantly from her intended course, or encounters a hazard such as a storm, which must be resolved by a Teamwork Action from the crew, and/or a Chase action (WoD corebook, pg 65). * Success: Ship makes average speed of its class this day. * Exceptional Success: Ship makes top speed of it’s class this day or crew found shorter course. Swimming In most cases, swimming is represented by a Strength + Athletics roll, with an equipment bonus for flippers, hand paddles, synthetic sharkskin wetsuits, and similar gear; the number of successes rolled indicates the number of yards (or meters) the character swims in his or her turn. For naturally-buoyant characters (i.e., all living humans whose lungs are full of air), rolls to swim deeper take a -1 die penalty, while rolls to swim towards the surface (assuming the character is oriented enough to know where that is) grants a +1 bonus. Due to its increased density, saltwater grants a +1 equipment bonus on Stamina + Athletics rolls made to remain afloat for extended periods. Underwater Combat Visibility, Afloat With calm water and clear weather, visibility at sea is limited only by the curvature of the earth. Standing at a height of about 2 meters above the sea's surface (roughly 6 feet), one can see up to 5km (3 miles) away. Of course, the distance between the observer and the horizon will vary with the observer's height above sea level, but fortunately this is relatively easy to calculate. Visibility, Underwater (adapted from Stormwrack, pg 11) Water is not perfectly transparent; as you descend, less of the sun’s light penetrates the water. Sunlight serves as a source of illumination during daylight hours, but sunlight’s ability to provide illumination quickly diminishes as you go deeper into the water. Sunlight as a light source provides the following amount of illumination in the water. Table: Sunlight as a Light Source (Obviously these distances can be affected by cloud cover, high winds, and time of day. Ultimately, visibility is left to the Storyteller's discretion.) Murky water reduces the radius of illumination provided by a light source (the sun or a carried light source, such as a waterproof flashlight or lantern) by half, since light scatters and reflects from particles suspended in the water. Wind and Weather